Man Pleads Guilty In Ecstasy Case

A 29-year-old native of the Netherlands has pleaded guilty to shipping thousands of Ecstasy pills from Europe to Connecticut over the last two years.

Casper Deboer faces up to 20 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, and fines up to $1 million when he is sentenced March 2 in U.S. District Court in New Haven.

Deboer was arrested in August after federal authorities intercepted packages he had shipped from Belgium to Connecticut, according to Stephen C. Robinson, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut.

The packages contained more than 6,000 tablets of Ecstasy, a euphoria-inducing drug that has become popular among young people in the state. The drug is commonly used at all-night dance parties known as ``raves'' and is known to cause hallucinations and periods of high energy that can last for six hours or more. Long-term brain damage is possible for users.

Deboer is among six people who were arrested and pleaded guilty in a federal crackdown on an Ecstasy ring, including two men in Woodbridge and Meriden who were the intended recipients of the packages, Robinson said.

Deboer was taken into custody by agents of the FBI and U.S. Customs Services as he tried to enter the United States at Logan Airport in Boston. Robinson said Deboer made thousands of dollars arranging the illegal Ecstasy shipments.